And as a matter of scope, your reaction here is incorrect. [...] Reacting to it as a synecdoche of the agricultural system does not seem useful.
On my reading, the OP is legit saddened by that individual turkey. One could argue that scope demands she be a billion times sadder all the time about poultry farming in general, but that’s infeasible. And I don’t think that’s a reductio against feeling sad about an individual turkey.
Sometimes, sadness and crying are about integrating one’s beliefs. There’s an intuitive part of your mind that doesn’t understand your models of big, global problems. But, like a child, it understands the small tragedies you encounter up close. If it’s shocked and surprised, then it is still learning what the rest of you knows about the troubles of the world. If it’s angry and outraged, then there’s a sense in which those feelings are “about” the big, global problems too.
On my reading, the OP is legit saddened by that individual turkey. One could argue that scope demands she be a billion times sadder all the time about poultry farming in general, but that’s infeasible. And I don’t think that’s a reductio against feeling sad about an individual turkey.
Sometimes, sadness and crying are about integrating one’s beliefs. There’s an intuitive part of your mind that doesn’t understand your models of big, global problems. But, like a child, it understands the small tragedies you encounter up close. If it’s shocked and surprised, then it is still learning what the rest of you knows about the troubles of the world. If it’s angry and outraged, then there’s a sense in which those feelings are “about” the big, global problems too.